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Spirituality

This category contains 467 posts

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‘Let no one who is not eager for truth and peace enter here’ (Plato)

Articles on this site express varying points of view, to encourage mature thinking on serious issues. The assumption is that you will want to study a controversial topic from various angles before you arrive at a conclusion, rather than simply believe what someone told you when you were impressionable! (So some stuff here is ‘hot’. Proceed at your own risk!). See the Statement of Faith for John Mark Ministries' theological stance.

WAS JESUS A CHRISTIAN? (I doubt it)

WAS JESUS A CHRISTIAN? (I DOUBT IT)
 Christians come in about 13 varieties. These varieties (or mindsets) can be found in all religions. You mustn’t judge any religion simply on its caricatures. My theses: Each mind-set makes part of Christianity the whole of it. There’s nothing wrong with the parts. But like a car, if […]

ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO – A Great 20th Century Martyr

The Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors came to what is now Latin America in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries ‘with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other.’ The Republic of El Salvador (‘Republic of the Savior’) is the smallest and most densely populated country – with just 6 million people -  in Central America. […]

Pentecost: the Holy Spirit’s Gift of Energy

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S GIFT OF ENERGY! Pentecost Sunday is sometimes called ‘the birthday of the Church’. Pentecost is a Greek word meaning ’50′, so we celebrate Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. Forty days he taught and encouraged his followers, then after his Ascension they waited another ten days for his gift of […]

The Lord’s Prayer is subversive…

(Posted by

POVERTY – and ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO

POVERTY and MARGINALIZATION AROUND THE WORLD, WITH A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHIP OSCAR ROMERO (EAST DONCASTER BAPTIST CHURCH, Melbourne: February 14, 2014) First thanks to all of you at EDBC for your wonderful support and prayer for Jan and me, her carer over the last couple of fairly traumatic years. For those […]

The End of Materialism

By Thomas Scarborough Imagine a game of fast chess, in which a timer is used.

The Art of Darkness (dark literature which can change your life)

Rowland: Which ‘dark books’ have made a deep impression on you? Mine: off the top of my head: Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, CSLewis: The Problem of Pain (and later A Grief Observed), James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; more recently Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. ~~ the art of darkness […]

There is no them, only us

by Nils von Kalm http://nilsvonkalm.com

Rene Girard and the Jesus-Driven Life

The Gist of Michael Hardin

Life, death, love and grief

by Nils von Kalm http://nilsvonkalm.com A former colleague and friend of mine died last week. She was too young, and left behind a husband and two kids. People who were closer to her than I was have been comforting each other this week in their grief. It has been terribly sad to witness. The times […]